


Last Chance, First Dance

by Jedi_in_the_TARDIS



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Ballroom Dancing, F/M, First Dance, Fluff, Fun, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22591012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedi_in_the_TARDIS/pseuds/Jedi_in_the_TARDIS
Summary: The time has come for Zelda to select her suitor at a hugely important dance. Link isn't ready to let her go.
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 74





	Last Chance, First Dance

Link’s focus was unwavering.  
He stood behind Zelda at the gala, paying attention to everyone who came remotely close to the princess. An assassination attempt was so unlikely that even Impa was relaxed, but he analyzed every person, every pocket big enough to contain a dagger, every microscopic gesture. He did this because the only alternative meant looking at Zelda’s shoulders, her neck, her face, her hair, the way she was relaxed, smiling and laughing, her eyes twinkling-  
Link shook his head. Yeah. Definitely better to be on his guard.  
The prior song ended, and the dancers came to a halt. Several guards ushered the guests off of the dance floor.  
It’s time. Link thought. Goddesses be with me.  
An announcer walked onto the dance floor and played a short ditty on his trumpet. “Announcing the selection of the suitors!”  
A group of high-ranking nobles from Hyrule and beyond gathered on the floor.  
“The Princess shalt select a suitor to court for the next several months and grant unto them the last dance of the evening!” The announcer said. “The suitor shall be a guest of honor at Hyrule Castle…”  
Link’s focus shifted away. Without any potential assassins, his gaze inexorably fixed on the princess. The chords in Zelda’s neck were tight, and her jaw was set with a tension Link hadn’t seen on her in a long, long time.  
He clenched his fist, wishing very dearly he could stab Ancient Hylian Princess Dating laws in the face with the Master Sword.  
Zelda looked back at him. For a second, Link forgot himself, but then he snapped to attention and looked away. It would not do for the Princess’ bodyguard to be seen ogling her, especially now.  
She proffered her arm to him.  
“Don’t worry.” She said to him softly. “I’m not about to go into danger without you.”  
Link froze up.  
Take her arm and escort her, you useless piece of Bokoblin dung.  
Link took her arm and led her to the center of the dance floor, in front of all of the suitors. Men and women of a variety of shapes, sizes, and ages stood before them, each person dressed up more than the last.  
“Hyrule values its relationship with each of your kingdoms and clans very highly,” Zelda assured them. “However, the matter of my courtship is a very private one, and one I have already found my own answer for. You are dismissed.”  
The suitors looked at each other, confused. Link fixed them with a cold stare, but internally, he was just as confused. How had Zelda settled her suitor problem? Had she decided that she could afford the gossip that would come with settling without a romantic partner? Was she going mad?  
“I will not ask again.” Zelda said, her voice soft but with iron underneath. The ambassadors scattered into the crowd.  
Zelda pivoted, taking herself off of Link’s arm, before grabbing Link’s waist with one hand and his other hand with the other. Each touch felt forbidden.  
“Princess-?” Link began.  
“Maestro?” Zelda commanded.  
The band began to play, and Zelda began to dance.  
Link had been trained how to dance-once, a lifetime ago, and only for a short time. He moved with a frantic precision as he struggled to keep up.  
“What the hell are you doing?” He hissed to Zelda.  
Zelda smirked. “They told me to select a suitor and dance with him or her. They never specified that it had to be one of the nobles.”  
Link continued to stare at her, bewildered.  
“Just...follow my lead.” Zelda said. “Do you trust me?”  
“Of course.”  
“Good.” Zelda pulled Link’s arm over her head and twirled. Link’s steps were awkward and frantic.  
“Relax.” Zelda said. “Everything is going to be ok.”  
Link found relaxing to be completely impossible.  
“Look at my face, Link.”  
Link looked up from his feet to stare directly at her. Zelda smiled, and his heart melted almost immediately.  
“Keep listening to the beat,” Zelda said, “And don’t take your eyes from mine.”  
Maintaining eye contact with Zelda for this long was comparable to the feeling of intensity he had gotten from plunging the Master Sword into Gannon’s heart, but he managed to look at her without flinching. He felt as though his mind was exposed to her, as though she could see every little thought.  
For a moment, the thought was another source of stress, before he realized that if anyone were to see him that vulnerable, she would be the person he would pick.  
Slowly, he relaxed.  
“You have really pretty eyes,” Link said lamely. Zelda smiled.  
The dance came to an end; he bowed to her.  
“It’s been an enchanting evening.” Zelda announced. “Thank you, and goodnight.”  
She immediately wrapped her arm around Link’s and marched him from the hall. Link kept up as they hastily exited the room before most of the ball goers had made it to the exit.  
Zelda lead Link through the corridors of the castle without speaking. Link’s head was spinning, but he knew where she was taking him, so he kept quiet.  
The two of them emerged onto one of the walls of the castle, on top of the roof, Zelda’s arm still wrapped tightly around Link’s. She slowly let go.  
“My apologies for pulling that on you so quickly.” Zelda said. “I would have told you what my plan was, but every time I’ve seen you for the past fortnight it’s been with someone else and I daren’t tell anyone else, for fear that they would stop me.”  
“Hold on,” Link said. “I’m still confused. We danced. It was nice, but you being the Princess and I being a farm boy-won’t that start gossip?”  
“Oh, I expect to command all of the gossip in the kingdom for the next month. We didn’t just dance, Link. Do you remember which dance it was?”  
The gears in Link’s brain whirred for a second before coming onto the conclusion.  
“Crap,” He said, “Uh, I mean, pardon my language, Princess, but-but crap! That was the courtship dance! By dancing with me, you communicated to the crowd that-  
“I did.”  
“You made them think you’re trying to enter into courtship with me!”  
“Indeed.”  
“But that would be crazy!”  
“Oh, I’m sure someone somewhere will say that it was a brilliant political move.” Zelda began to walk down the rampart, and Link followed after her. “Instead of splitting my power with a noble, I entered into courtship with one who has already sworn fealty to me. I ignored my advisor’s selected suitors-which is a shrewd move that will heighten my own power by demonstrating that I am more powerful than them. Court politics and such.” She wrinkled her nose for a second. “No. Court politics and-crap. That’s the word, yes?”  
“Uh, yeah.” Link said. He chuckled, somewhat nervously. “Crap certainly covers it.”  
“I figured you would understand.” Zelda said, turning to face him and stopping the both of them in their tracks. “You’ve sworn to protect me. You’ll consider it your sworn duty to protect my power and to protect me from an unknown relationship, of course. Considering that any of those nobles could be abusive pricks.”  
“Uh, yeah.” Link’s head was still reeling. “That would fall under my oath to you. If you deem it that way, anyway.”  
“Logically.” Zelda said. “It’s a brilliant move.”  
“I would have to agree.”  
“All of those reasons were all afterthoughts.” Zelda said. “When I first thought of it, I figured that it might be suicide, politics-wise. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that almost any husband I could have would be suspicious of you. Even though you’re my bodyguard, you’re with me most of the time, even when I’m relaxing. And when you factor in that we relax together, go on leisure trips together, eat together, practically do everything together-you know.”  
The gears in Link’s brain were turning, very, very slowly.  
“It started with the realization that I couldn’t bear to live without you, Link.” Zelda said. “Your kindness, your humor, your empathy. It ended with the realization that if I don’t try to marry you, then most likely I’ll just end up having an affair with you anyway.”  
Link’s train of thought was finally starting to move through the overwhelming flood of information, before it hit a very sudden, very large roadblock. “Wait, what? An affair?”  
“Well, since I’ve been in love with you for the past several years and have only been getting more and more desperate, I can’t imagine how wound up I’d be after a decade of a loveless marriage.”  
Link’s brain completely crashed. Every brain cell in his head writhed with a slew of information and emotions, each train of thought zooming through his head in a chaotic mess that resembled an angry flock of cuckoos.  
“I’m-I’m sorry if you feel trapped.” Zelda said. “I don’t mean to force you into marrying me-”  
“No, no, that’s fine.” Link was operating at extremely low efficiency, but he had to ease her. “I love you, Princess, and the idea of marrying you sounds lovely.” Okay, he’d said the important things. “Just-just give me a second to process, here.” He sank down to the floor, leaning up against the castle rampart.  
“Are you okay?” Zelda asked, kneeling in front of him.  
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m walking among the heavens on the mythical Skyloft.” Link said. “Just sit with me for a moment and let me think, if you don’t mind.”  
She smiled at him, and sat down next to him, linking her arm in his.  
Link was silent for a long time, staring at his boots, every inch of his body that Zelda’s arm touched feeling warm and cozy, as if it were in front of a fire.  
“You...I didn’t meet you until I rescued you.” Link said. “From Ganondorf. But everywhere I went, people would tell me about you. How you single handedly outsmarted a tribe of Bokoblins to protect a village here. How you personally delivered food to a village there. I read some of your letters, too, how’d you’d write to a whole village just to give them hope against the monsters in those days...I think I started to fall in love with the idea of you, the idea of a woman who just existed to make the Kingdom of Hyrule a better place. And then I met you, and you were every bit as nice as I’d made you out to be...I couldn’t confess to you, since you were the Princess and everything, and, like, I wasn’t in love with you personally, I was in love with you as a force of good. It was kind of like being in love with the sun? Then I got to know you personally and you still were kind to me and nice and then you were also super pretty and super fun to be around, and it just got worse and worse-”  
Zelda breathed a sigh of relief.  
“You okay?”  
“Yeah.” Zelda said. “It’s just...I came up with this whole plan assuming you loved me back. If you hadn’t, I would have placed you in a spot where you might’ve felt forced to marry me. I didn’t want that.”  
“I’ve spent the past two years suppressing every romantic thought I had towards you,” Link said, “Trust me, being allowed to say them all out loud is a welcome change.”  
“There is only one thing for it, then.” Zelda said softly. “You shall have to express all of those thoughts in the coming weeks.”  
“Well, first thing’s first, then.” Link said, leaning in. Zelda closed her eyes, pursed her lips-  
Link hesitated. “Um-Like, I know that we’re officially courting and all, but I still feel like I should ask-”  
Zelda grabbed Link’s collar and pulled him in for a kiss.


End file.
